Asus ROG

1. Desing

The Asus ROG G20CB is the type of machine that represents the

future of PC gaming. It's tiny, it looks like it was made by aliens and it's specifically designed to handle virtual reality. But while many modern PCs merely mark off those common checkboxes, Asus' PC shatters them, offering a one-of-a-kind design whose sharp angles and glowing lights are as captivating as they are practical. People seeking upgradability or a more TV-cabinet-friendly design should look elsewhere, but in terms of compact PCs built for VR gaming, the G20CB is at the top of its class.                                                                                                            

     2. Lighting

                                         

In addition to being completely captivating, the breathing LED lights emanating out of the G20CB are ridiculously customizable. Using the desktop's included Aegis II app, you can individually assign one of 8 million colors to the PC's left, right and bottom-facing lights, as well as set each light to pulsate or glow steadily.You can also opt to have each zone run through a gamut of colors. There's a ton of freedom here, whether you want a static, all-red look to match the PC's design or prefer the desktop to span every color of the rainbow Although customizing the G20's lights is a ton of fun, syncing them to your music is even cooler. Once you enable the Sound Effect feature in the Aegis app, the PC's two front lights become bars of light that bounce up and down based on the rhythm and volume of your PC's audio. As soon as I saw the G20's blue and purple lights thump in unison with Fall Out Boy's "Irresistible," it was hard to look away.

      3. Portd and Upgradability                                                                                 The strip of red in the G20CB's center houses your essential plug-and-play ports, which include two USB 3.0 ports, a DVD-RW drive, and headphone and microphone jacks. In the back, you'll find two USB 3.1 ports, two USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports. As a great extra touch, the USB 3.0 and 3.1 ports are labeled with the Oculus logo, so you know exactly where to plug in your Rift. (Don't worry; this rig supports the HTC Vive, too.)

       4. Gaming Preformance

                                                                                         

Asus' PC allowed me to take in Rise of the Tomb Raider's gorgeous ancient vistas and lifelike character models at 2560 x 1440 on high settings, all while jumping from cliff to cliff at a smooth 45 to 60 frames per second. (Lowering the resolution to 1080p resulted in a consistent 60 fps.) I was even able to push the game to 4K, in exchange for a less smooth 30-fps frame rate.

The G20CB cranked out the game's benchmark at a brisk 54.9 fps at 1080p with graphics maxed out, but sank to a slugging 21.8 fps at 4K. That's about on a par with the X51's scores of 58.8 fps at 1080p and 19.9 fps at 4K.

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